What truly holds Costa Rica back and makes life so expensive is our social model of “inefficiency”.
“Inefficiency,” is the root cause of corruption as it provides the proper environment for lies, cheating and to steal all unabated. In addition it is the justification for indecision, lack of accountability and the excuse for publishing valuable studies on our deteriorating infrastructure which almost never come to fruition.
The acceptance of “inefficiency” as a criteria for work well done brings on one boondoggle after another to the detriment of all that live here.
There can be no greater incompetency than the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers (AyA) which may very well ration water in early 2015: the dry season.
According to La Nación, this institution has never implemented a master plan and has never really even thought out critical maintenance in locations such as Cartago and Heredia where running water, like its brother electricity, is on then off without notice.
Studies show that 47% of all water is being lost do to waste, leakage and illegal connections. That’s got to be a record.
Faced with el Niño and a prolonged dry spell in the Central Valley, the Pacific region and Guanacaste: water will be in short supply by year end as will crops, livestock, residents and industry. On the other hand, the Caribbean can expect torrential rains.
The folks living near the Bagaces area will continue to have unacceptable rates of arsenic laced drinking water because AyA’s only action has been to put nails in the water filters. A homemade idea that does little if any good.
MOPT the keeper and builder of roads cannot repair the main road leading to the Caribbean and we are even now fraught with mudslides up to 3 meters in height.
Limon Province, its produce and livestock will be cut off since to repair the main artery, Route 32, MOPT must have permission from MINAE, the protector of our reserves and they refuse to hand it out. It seems like the most dangerous part of Route 32 runs right through a protected national reserve and despite building this deadly road, MINAE is in denial and the piece of paper to allow MOPT to finally correct the situation is lost in the maze of inefficiency.
Since we cannot easily access produce and livestock, those two critical commodities will be in short supply and you can bet that prices will go up again and again as will gasoline at the pump.
The last boondoggle on my list for today is once again our national public healthcare system (Caja) where honesty is not the best policy. Those who have jobs to serve the sick and infirmed, and somewhere along the way keep millions of people healthy offers up one of the most inefficient and ergo corrupt institutions in Costa Rica.
Engrained in this monolithic organization is to steal with impunity.
For example, recently a little boy died on the OR table because the lead doc decided to leave him there and take on another surgery more profitable at a private hospital. Doctors, technicians and a pizza parlor accomplice had been selling organs to hard cash paying donors in Israel for years and as recently as June 10Th a $2 plus million dollar scam was discovered as hospital technicians have been billing the Caja for prosthetics and other orthopedic parts never delivered and never used.
The boondoggle list can get pretty extensive but so far nobody has done jail time. And why not? Because of the rampant inefficiency engrained in the judicial system itself.
